A gas turbine engine includes a compressor, a combustor, and turbine enclosed in an engine case with the compressor having a plurality of alternating rows of rotating blades and stationary vanes. The gas turbine engine also includes a substantially circumferential groove formed in the engine case of the compressor section. The groove is substantially adjacent to a row of rotating blades to extract a portion of tip leakage flow from that row of blades and to route the extracted tip leakage flow to the turbine section for cooling turbine components. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the groove communicates with a plenum which communicates with the turbine section of the gas turbine engine via channeling pipes formed within the engine case.